Page 49 of Hooked on a Witch
Upon my return I shall greet the Iwa.
Voodoo Legba open the gate for me
So that I can come in.
Amen.”
Lola seized a hobbled rooster off the floor and cut off its head with a dirty knife, draining its blood into a calabash bowl. The annoying humming she’d maintained throughout the rooster’s death stopped. Her eyes rolled upward until only the vein-ridden whites were visible. Trembling starting in her arms and overtook her body. Energy stirred in the small kitchen.
Lola’s eyes popped open. Her dilated pupils obscured the pale irises making her eyes appear black. Her body shakes ceased. Silence descended with only the sound of their breathing in the room.
Her gnarled hand reached toward Shannon. “Let me see your hands, honey.”
Shannon stared into the black eyes, mesmerized.
“No.” Merck grabbed Shannon’s hand as it reached toward Lola.
Shannon’s gaze snapped to his, startled and apologetic.
“Lola, Legba, or whoever you may be right now, if you touch her, I’ll cut off both your hands. If it’s worth losing limbs and you hurt her, I’ll ram this knife into your heart.” Merck slammed his black-blade knife on the table. “Are we clear?”
“We’s good.” Lola smiled and folded her hands together on the table. She gazed sightlessly above their heads for several long seconds. Her eyes focused on Shannon. “You must survive to thrive.”
Silence rested between the three of them for several dramatic seconds before she turned to Merck. “That you seek is not ahead of you but now.”
With a headshake, Lola’s head rolled forward onto her chest where it stayed. End of spirit possession. Show over.
All this for two bad lines he could’ve gotten out of a fortune cookie? What a buttload of worthless crap to have suffered the stench of this place and be cheated out of the scrying glass. Usually, Lola provided better information.
Moments later, Lola blinked. “You get what you needed to know?”
Merck pushed away from the table and grabbed Shannon’s hand, encouraging her to stand. “Yep. As always, it’s been an experience. I’ll get the glass out of the car for you.”
Merck pulled Shannon outside. Questions loomed in her gaze.
“Not now.” He retrieved the scrying glass from his duffle bag, walked it up the steps and handed it to Lola.
Lola palmed the piece and laughed. “Nice doin’ business with you. Stop by for tea again.”
He paused on the lower step to face her. “Behave or I’ll be back sooner than either of us would like.”
“Of course, Mister Enforcer.” She fake saluted him.
Shannon didn’t unfold her arms until they were back on the washboard road. “What’d it mean?”
“No clue.”That you seek is not ahead of you but now.Confirmation he had no future.
“I can’t get it to make sense for anything to do with finding the Trident. And, I feel grimy.”
“Sometimes Lola isn’t helpful, like today. It’s rare she has nothing to offer, but she’s not a guaranteed answer. We need to go somewhere with lots of people right now. A tourist trap works best. I usually hit Seaside Papa’s after a Lola visit.”
“Why do we need a place like that?”
“We need somewhere friendly to erase the darkness voodoo leaves.”
The restaurant’s dirt lot had few spaces remaining, and that was with good parking technique. Tourists didn’t excel at make it into the narrow spaces. The rectangular one-story building had retained its homey feel, which he enjoyed, even if it’d been overdecorated with crafty, country shit.
As they entered, the busty brunette hostess lit up. He stifled theoh shiton the tip of his tongue when the thirty-year-old with whom he’d spent a disappointing one-nighter a year ago scanned him from head to crotch. He’d forgotten she worked weekdays.
